Agrarian and other histories essays for binay bhushan chaudhuri

Agrarian and other histories essays for binay bhushan chaudhuri

The introduction by Shubhra Chakrabarti provides a panoptical view of Binay Bhushan Chaudhuri’s contribution to the agrarian history of eastern India by highlighting the decisive role played by the peasant households, zamindars and the colonial state; non-peasant rural agents such as money-lenders, affluent landholders; farmers and agrarian intermediaries (Jotedars) in the rural agrarian structure  · Agrarian and Other Histories: Essays for Binay Bhushan Chaudhuri [Chakrabarti, Shubhra, Patnaik, Utsa] on blogger.com *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Agrarian and Other Histories: Essays for Binay Bhushan ChaudhuriPrice: $ blogger.com: Agrarian and Other Histories: Essays for Binay Bhushan Chaudhuri () and a great selection of similar New, Used and Collectible Books available now at

Agrarian and Other Histories | Columbia University Press

Scholars from varied disciplines of social science in the recent past have been engaged in revisiting the concepts of rural, urban, peasant, non-peasant, formal, agrarian and other histories essays for binay bhushan chaudhuri, informal labour, intermediaries, money-lenders, classes of labour, new forms of caste bondage, freedom and un-freedom, given the significant changes in rural and urban India.

These conceptual debates have a long historical trajectory as they provide several contextual interpretations from different periods of time. At a time when it is essential to relook at the context in which some of these debates took place, Agrarian and Other Histories provides refreshing insights.

By invoking the relevance of the ideas of Professor Binay Bhushan Chaudhuri on the agrarian history of eastern India, the contributors pay a rich tribute to the economic historian through this book.

The first section consisting of five chapters focus on the conceptual issues of agrarian studies. Dietmar Rothermund recapitulates the discussion on the definition of peasant. He has emphasized how the institutional framework was significant within which the peasants lived and worked.

The crucial elements of this framework are property rights, security of tenure, the availability of credit, the law of contract and the law of inheritance. Pointing out the importance of the growth of commercial agriculture, agrarian and other histories essays for binay bhushan chaudhuri, this chapter argues that production for the market did increase peasant enterprise. This is substantiated by providing examples from specific peasant castes such as the Kammas in coastal Andhra, the Gounders of Kongunad in Tamilnadu.

Rajat Datta argues that early modern Bengal was characterized by an unprecedented degree of agrarian and other histories essays for binay bhushan chaudhuri. The critical facilitators were the webs of connected surface and river communication and a dense lattice of mercantile networks operating out of both towns and villages. While market opportunities expanded and helped in enriching many indigenous traders, it also increased the economic vulnerability of the producers.

Shinkchi Taniguchi argues that differentiation among peasantry can occur even in the absence of a land market for peasants through political processes. David Ludden narrates the complex process through which Sylhet was incorporated into British Bengal in Even as more local farmers bought company land rights, however, remitting Sylhet revenue posed a difficult problem as there were no metal coins, no rich merchants or big bankers in Sylhet.

The strict boundary drawn at the base of the northern mountains in to settle all borders with Khasia rulers in fact defined the Bengalis and the Khasias as people with separate histories, homelands and cultural identities.

This chapter highlights that conquest from above was not as easy as the British state imagined. It could not produce an ideal agrarian space, unhindered and unconstrained. Sekhar Bandyopadhyay talks about the participation of Dalits and Muslims in Bengal partition politics, agrarian and other histories essays for binay bhushan chaudhuri.

After Partition, the Dalit peasants were displaced from their ancestral homes by Islamic nationalism in India; while it tried to appropriate them, it was not ready to offer them full citizenship. As they were dispersed in various rufugee camps throughout the country, organized Dalit voices disappeared from the Bengali public space leading to that all powerful myth that caste does not matter in Bengal.

Gargi Chakravartty highlights two important points: one, that famine was a man-made calamity caused by bureaucratic corruption and the exploitative zaminari system. Poor peasants sold land worth 10 crore rupees and the displacement of the peasantry on such a large scale agrarian and other histories essays for binay bhushan chaudhuri unprecedented. Shubhra Chakrabarti talks about how the indigenous merchants of Bengal collaborated with the Europeans in trade and turned into business tycoons.

These merchants continued to dominate the commercial world agrarian and other histories essays for binay bhushan chaudhuri up to the first two decades of the 19th century.

Uma Das Gupta highlights the ideas behind setting up of Sriniketan as a rural development wing of Visva Bharati University. Tagore did not believe that change in property relations would alter the injustice done to peasants and therefore emphasized change in human attitudes and adoption of cooperative methods. Tanika Sarkar analyses three novels of Tagore reflecting on different phases of nationalism and the contexts of class, gender and caste politics.

The last section analyses the concept of poverty and the drain of wealth from India to Britain in the context of global diffusion of capitalism.

While the colonial approach reflected utilitarian ideas, the nationalist approach emphasized the structural conditions that sustained deprivation among the agricultural and working classes.

Second, by the end of the 19th century, the drain became very large with India posting the second largest export surplus earnings in the world for at least four decades before Depression. Third, the gold and foreign exchange earnings thus appropriated from its colonies, especially from India, allowed Britain to export capital to develop Europe, North America and agrarian and other histories essays for binay bhushan chaudhuri White settlement regions ensuring rapid diffusion of capitalism in these regions.

The book raises important questions on the concepts of nationalism, agrarian and non-agrarian rural world, forced commercialization of agriculture, village-town transactions relevant to the theoretical and empirical debates in contemporary India.

The historical accounts and the diverse viewpoints make the book interesting reading, as it maintains consistent academic rigour in all the chapters. Purendra Prasad is Professor and Head, Department of Sociology at the University of Hyderabad. His research focus is on agrarian relations, class-caste dynamics, forced migration, health inequalities and urban transformations. Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

clear form Post comment. Skip to content. Revisiting Conceptual Debates In Agrarian Studies. Book Name: Agrarian And Other Histories: Essays For Binay Bhushan Chaudhuri. Reviewer name: Purendra Prasad. Author name: Shubhra Chakrabarti and Utsa Patnaik. Book Year: Publisher Name: Tulika Books, New Delhi. Book Price: Book Pages: Previous Previous post: Understanding Land, Labour And Caste Relations Next Next post: Institutionalization Of The Engineering Profession In India.

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Peasants, Policies and Politics

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blogger.com: Agrarian and Other Histories: Essays for Binay Bhushan Chaudhuri () and a great selection of similar New, Used and Collectible Books available now at The introduction by Shubhra Chakrabarti provides a panoptical view of Binay Bhushan Chaudhuri’s contribution to the agrarian history of eastern India by highlighting the decisive role played by the peasant households, zamindars and the colonial state; non-peasant rural agents such as money-lenders, affluent landholders; farmers and agrarian intermediaries (Jotedars) in the rural agrarian structure As a mark of regard and esteem, thirteen scholars have come together to present felicitation essays to B.B. Chaudhuri in this volume. These essays relate not only to the economic aspects of the agrarian history of Bengal and other regions, but also to some of its cultural dimensions, and extend to a discussion of the questions of poverty and the drain of wealth from India